The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F_ck

he already had was more important: a big and loving family,
a stable marriage, a simple life. He even still got to play
drums, touring Europe and recording albums well into the
2000s. So what was really lost? Just a lot of attention and
adulation, whereas what was gained meant so much more
to him.
These stories suggest that some values and metrics are
better than others. Some lead to good problems that are
easily and regularly solved. Others lead to bad problems
that are not easily and regularly solved.
Shitty Values
There are a handful of common values that create really
poor problems for people—problems that can hardly be
solved. So let’s go over some of them quickly:
1. Pleasure. Pleasure is great, but it’s a horrible value to
prioritize your life around. Ask any drug addict how his
pursuit of pleasure turned out. Ask an adulterer who
shattered her family and lost her children whether
pleasure ultimately made her happy. Ask a man who
almost ate himself to death how pleasure helped him
solve his problems.
Pleasure is a false god. Research shows that people
who focus their energy on superficial pleasures end up
more anxious, more emotionally unstable, and more
depressed. Pleasure is the most superficial form of life
satisfaction and therefore the easiest to obtain and the
easiest to lose.
And yet, pleasure is what’s marketed to us, twentyfour/seven.
It’s what we fixate on. It’s what we use to
numb and distract ourselves. But pleasure, while
necessary in life (in certain doses), isn’t, by itself,
sufficient.
Pleasure is not the cause of happiness; rather, it is the
effect. If you get the other stuff right (the other values